LET THEM EAT CAKE: Castronuova Files For Ballot Access While EDNY Judges 'Punt' and 'Party'
LET THEM EAT CAKE: Castronuova Files For Ballot Access While EDNY Judges 'Punt' and 'Party'
New York's Broken Cash Registers and Judicial Parties
US Senate Candidate Cara Castronuova, aided by political activist and Newsmax personality John Tabacco, carries over 15,000 “wet signatures” to be filed at the New York State Board of Elections at 40 Pearl Street in Albany earlier today.
By Dick LaFontaine
U.S. Senate Candidate Cara Castronuova and her supporters have been busy the last month and a half. They have been busy engaging in New York’s archaic ballot access requirement of collecting over 15,000 “wet signatures” from registered New York Republican voters. Through snow, wind, rain, and the last week of torrential downpours and tornadoes, Team Castranuova slogged through to obtain ink sign-offs for the former boxing star’s run at the federal government’s upper legislative chamber.
Today, thousands of man-hours later, the finished product of their efforts - a designating petition - was delivered to the New York State Board of Elections in Albany. Castranouva plopped several boxes of signed, bound pages onto the filing counter. The papers were stamped and received well before the 5:00 p.m. deadline.
Castranuova is now a presumptive candidate on the Republican Party primary ballot for the June 25 election.
But the larger question is why Castranuova had to spend time and resources petitioning her way onto the ballot. Mainly when embattled GOP State Chair Ed' Cox’s hand-selected candidate, a Letitia James supporter, had no such requirement.
Political activist and Newsmax personality John Tabacco wants to know why Castranuova had to jump through all these political hoops to present Republican voters with a genuine choice on the primary ballot. On Monday, he filed suit as a disenfranchised New York Republican Party voter seeking relief from the unconstitutional restrictions upon CastranCastranuova'sacy and his right to vote for her as the Republican candidate of his choice.
Claiming that case precedent supports his and Castronuova's position, Tabacco fashions himself as a “Modern-Day Guy Molinari” while invoking the late Staten Island political legend.
“In 2000, Guy Molinari successfully challenged an onerous NYS elections system on behalf of John McCain, who sought access to the Presidential ballot. The crux of that case was the petitioning requirement for tens of thousands of signatures from registered Republican voters. The Court was about to rule against the state party and the Board of Elections when they gave into Guy Molinari and agreed to McCainMcCain's on the ballot,” Tabacco said.
“Our case is even better than in Molinari v. Powers. Ed Cox’s hand-picked RINO candidate didn't have to get a single signature because of a law change that favors crooked backroom deals over rank and file Republican voters and their right to vote, associate, and support the candidate of their choice. Steve Forbes spent over $1 million in 1996 and was still thrown off the ballot at the NYS Board. And the State GOP-backed candidates still had to get tens of thousands of good signatures to get on the ballot,” Tabacco said.
Even though he asked the EDNY court for answers on Monday in an emergency application, Tabacco is still waiting for an opportunity to be heard. According to docket entries in Brooklyn federal court, Judge Nina R. Morrison, a recent Biden appointee, did her best “Reggie Roby” and punted the case, citing undisclosed reasons.
Castronuova's emergency election law case is without a Consttutionally-appointed Federal Court District Judge.
“Judge Morrison recused herself without providing the grounds for recusal. The case was not assigned to a new judge, and was instead assigned to Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon. We never waived our constitutional right to have our case heard by an Article III judge, yet our case is currently assigned to a magistrate, which we object to,” papers filed earlier today state.
The case is a “hot potato,” according to a well-known New York Democratic consultant who did not wish to be named.
“To say it’s a ‘floater’ would be correct. No one wants to touch it. [Judge] Morrison has further judicial aspirations, and no good comes from her signing off on Molinari [v. Powers], on the one hand, or pretending it doesn’t exist and getting overruled [at the Second Circuit],” the consultant said. “Any judge would be in that situation because they would immediately draw the ire of the state parties.”
According to the filing, Tabacco faced significant hijinx when seeking to file the case.
“Tabacco personally went to the Court to file the Complaint and a Motion for Preliminary Injunction on April 1, 2024, and was told that he could not file because ‘the cash registers at the court were broken.’ Tabacco earnestly pleaded with the Court to allow for filing and explained the urgency of the matter. This is an election case, and as the Court is well aware if these cases are not decided prior to applicable election deadlines, it is all but certain that the Plaintiffs will be denied relief…Justice is delayed, Justice is denied,” the papers said.
Tabacco said a broken cash register on Monday wasn’t the only problem. He also had issues on Wednesday, seeking summonses to officially serve the defendants and file an order to show cause. During the business day, a clerk said they were “closed,” and nothing could be looked at because all the judges were at a “party.” Evidently, all the judges in the EDNY were too busy…because they were actually eating cake.
“I went again to the Courthouse to file the Show Cause Order on April 3, 2024. I arrived at approximately 3:00 PM, after staying up all night the previous night working with volunteers to comply with the arbitrary ‘binding’ requirements for the petition signatures, and then spending the entire morning collecting signatures. I expected that I would have no problem filing because I was told on Monday that the Court was open for filing until 4:45 PM. When I arrived, I was told that he could not file the Order because the Court was closing early to have a party for a returning Judge. Once again, I pleaded with the clerks and let them know that I needed to speak to a judge for an urgent election case with a deadline tomorrow. The clerks ultimately accepted the filing, but sent me home telling me that the Court was officially closed for the day.”
As of press time, the PACER EDNY website still had Magistrate Scanlon, unappointed by a President and unconfirmed by the U.S. Senate, assigned to the case.
Stay tuned as this story develops.